Eric Bolling’s history of race-baiting and hypocrisy is well-documented at NewsHounds.  Like the time he said President Obama had invited “a hoodlum in the hizzouse,” for which he issued a non-apology apology.  Just last week, right on the heels of giving Bob Beckel crap for not paying enough respect to Rep. Allen West, he joked about the president being head of “Barry’s Pot And Coke Emporium.”  Today, while filling in for Gretchen Carlson on Fox and Friends, he took the drug analogy one step further when he warned Rep. Maxine Waters “Congresswoman, you saw what happened to Whitney Houston. Step away from the crack pipe, step away from the Xanax, step away from the Lorazepam because it’s going to get you in trouble.”  At least he called her Congresswoman, showing the proper respect to her office.

During the commercial break Bolling must have got an earful in his earpiece from a producer because he walked the comment back immediately: “Alright, before we get started, I just want to say I was kidding about the crack pipe. Just kidding.”  Because we all know that telling offensive, racist jokes is the most highly-prized ability of a so-called “newscaster.”  It’s also worth noting that the cause of death of Whitney Houston has not been announced yet, but Bolling has her dead of a crack cocaine overdose, which must be a comfort to her family.

In the wake of Roland Martin’s suspension at CNN, AlterNet published an article yesterday called “10 Repulsive Fox News Employees Who Should Be Fired.”  Eric Bolling was #5 on the list (which may not be in any particular order) for “Hoping to sustain Fox’s leadership in inappropriate Nazi references, Bolling accused President Obama of engaging in class warfare that was ‘forged in Marxist Germany.’ If that wasn’t asinine enough, he sided with Iran against the U.S. by accusing the American hikers who were held in an Iranian prison of being spies and said that Iran should have kept them imprisoned.”

For the record the other 9 Foxers Mark Howard thinks should be fired are Todd Starnes, Cody Willard, Andrew Napolitano, Bill Sammon, Bill O’Reilly, Col. Ralph Peters (Ret), Michael Scheuer, Roger Ailes, and Liz Trotta.  Your personal list may vary. He sums up thusly:

It’s difficult to believe that anyone could retain a job in the media after making statements like these. These were not mistakes or misunderstandings. These quotes are not taken out of context. They were considered, deliberate expressions of opinion that represented the reporter’s views at the time. Yet all of these people are still employed and active at Fox News.

To be fair, there is an example of Fox News firing reporters who crossed a line that even Fox could not abide. Steve Wilson and Jane Akre investigated a story detailing the health risks posed by the use of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), a milk additive manufactured by chemical giant Monsanto. Fox objected to the story’s negative portrayal of a major advertiser and ordered the reporters to make modifications that they knew were false. When the reporters refused, they were fired. In the subsequent litigation Fox argued in court that the network had a right to determine the content of their stories, and even to lie, and that employees who declined to comply could be terminated as insubordinate.

So while Fox News has no problem with its analysts advocating terrorism against Americans, it draws the line when it comes to suppressing its constitutional right to lie. Fox has taken great care to set its priorities and to draw its ethical lines in the sand that is always under the prevailing tide.

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